And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring the omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete. (Leviticus 23:15)

In Parashat Emor, the torah commands us to count the period from Passover to Shavuot. This period is called the “omer” and it is seven weeks long. The challah array depicted here represents all 49 days of the Omer period. The lone poppy-seeded roll indicates the day of the omer counted at the time the challah was made (counting from the right, it looks like it was the 20th day of the omer).

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Julie Seltzer is a scribe, baker, and artist. She began creating challah art at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut, where she lived until recently. Julie now resides in the Bay Area, where she is writing a torah scroll at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

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